written by Kathleen Clardy and Elizabeth Weintrob for Joint BME Communications
The NC State eGames is an annual student-led competition focusing on entrepreneurship and innovation. Participants can compete in various categories, including design, engineering, social impact and entrepreneurship. Winners receive cash prizes and provide participants with mentorship, networking opportunities and resources to help bring their ideas to life.
This year, students in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering won the following awards for their design team projects:
EnteroFlux: $4,000 cash prize.
Teammates (i4) include Keith Abbey, Andrew Hoang, Tyler Lee, Sasank Sivadanam, Alex Sprague and Helen Tran.
EnteroFlux is a solution for anastomotic leaks that occur in colon cancer-related colectomies.
Of the 320,000 cases of colectomy, a common colon reattachment surgical procedure to treat colon cancer performed yearly, about 18% leak following the surgery, causing life-threatening complications and repeat procedures with high mortality rates. The onset of these post-operative anastomotic leaks (AL) is still unknown; visible symptoms are often detected five to seven days after surgery, but leaks may occur earlier. EnteroFlux proposes a continuous optical sensing system that notifies healthcare providers of an AL as early as 12 hours after the surgery while being noninvasive. Our device minimizes the likelihood of complications and improves patient outcomes.
BioSensys: $6,000
Teammates include Robin Jacob (MedTech), Jocelyne Akamaliza (MedTech), Vince Ryan (MBA) and Kalindi Kapadia (MBA).
BioSensys is a hands-off sepsis monitoring device that allows clinicians to monitor patients continuously.
BioSensys offers a solution that provides noninvasive, continuous lactate monitoring for clinicians in the ICU to manage medical shock and improve patient outcomes. BioSensys is a project spun out of NC State MBA courses as part of the MedTech curriculum. MS candidates Jocelyne Akamaliza and Robin Jacob partnered with MBA students Vince Ryan and Kalindi Kapadia to commercialize the technology. The team has spent two semesters conducting interviews, developing a business plan and pitching at competitions like eGames and Catalyze to move the project outside the classroom and into the hands of hospital clinicians.
Cascade Medical: $6,000
Teammates include MedTech students Jordan Fong, Tori Stanley, Sheanna Allen, Cerise Dinigiswayo and Jocelyne Akamaliza.
Cascade Medical is a device to perform thoracentesis and thoracoscopy at decreased time and cost, with maximized accuracy.
Cascade Medical has identified two life-changing procedures: thoracentesis and thoracoscopies, which help over 1.5 million patients each year within the U.S. that suffer from fluid buildup within the lung and are at risk of lung cancer, heart congestion and other life-threatening complications. We provide bedside conjunction of both procedures for faster biopsy collection, which decreases the time to diagnosis and promotes earlier treatment for these patients in need.
SelSym Biotech: 3rd-place for the Daugherty Endowment Award ($10,000)
Selsym Biotech founders are comprised of CEO Seema Nandi, Ph.D. graduate from the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering (pictured below), Ashley Brown, associate professor of Biomedical Engineering at NC State and UNC, Tom Barker, professor of Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia, Nafi Ahmed, Ph.D. student with Industrial and Systems Engineering at NC State, and Andrew Lyon, Dean of the School of Engineering at Chapman University.
SelSym Biotech is a biotechnology startup located in North Carolina’s Research Triangle focused on the development of therapeutics for the treatment of uncontrolled bleeding. Learn more about SelSym Biotech and their mission here: http://selsymbio.com/
